When A Man Cries

When a child cries the tears rise quickly Spill hot and prickly down the reddened cheeks Just to leave as quickly as they came And peace returns again When a child cries you know about it They scream and shout until the hurt is gone Like a shower of rain that for a moment Hides away the sun But when a man cries it’s choked and throttled It’s all been bottled up for far too long And when at last the pressure cooker blows It’s hard to stem the flow When a man cries his body shakes And his eyeballs ache And his mind vibrates But he doesn’t make a sound Don’t wanna wake the house now Well the reasons are vague and hard to put in words Just a dull abstract ache, don’t wanna worry her She would only ask what’s wrong and I’d try to say Then she’d take all my pain and explain it away But who can explain why a man cries When a man cries he cries alone And for just a moment he’s back at home Cradled in his mother’s arms Free from guilt and safe from harm